theoldwolf

With the advent of Google Instant, the same algorithm used for suggesting search terms Google thinks you might be after, Google has instituted a "blacklist" of terms that will automatically disable instant searching, hoping to prevent tender eyes from seeing things they ought not.

This, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad idea - and all you have to do is press "Enter" to confirm that yes, you really want to search for "sex with goats on fire". But Google's Blacklist is an interesting beast, sure to offend everyone who is looking for something to be offended about. Either the presence or absence of some words, as well as how some words are handled, will be enough to put most whiners and complainers in high dudgeon.

For example, "are". If you add "are" after the following words, the blacklist kicks in: jews, christians, catholics born-again christians, evangelical christians, atheists, muslims, blacks, italians, mexicans, chinese, japanese, germans, arabs and french. The blacklist does NOT kick in when these words are entered before "are": terrorists, scientologists, agnostics, seventh day adventists, jehovah's witnesses, mormons, protestants, evangelists, pentecostalists, columbians, panamanians, iranians, iraqis, koreans, persians, turks.)

So if you're searching for "Muslims are...", you won't see instant searches because you might see something offensive. "Jews are..." is, of course, totally taboo to say even in progrssive society. Everyone knows that Jews must not be labelled in any way, unless you yourself want to be labelled an anti-Semite. "Mormons are...", however, is fair game. And, for what it's worth, the only thing Google suggests when you do type this in, is "Mormons are weird."

Thanks, Google. Well. Humph. Well! I'm shocked and appalled!